Lifeless Prayer
Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. To say a prayer is not to pray; Aschanius taught his parrot the Lord’s Prayer. St. Ambrose saith well, ‘It is the life and affection in a duty that baptizeth it, and gives it a name.’ ’Tis the violence and wrestling of the affections that make it a prayer, else it is no prayer.
The Christian Soldier, or Heaven Taken by Storm
p. 38–39
Thomas Watson, The Christian Soldier, or Heaven Taken By Storm (New York: Robert Moore, 1816)